New to the forum

Hi @Arbie_wun

Firstly, welcome to the Sane Forums. I hope you find this to be a warm and supportive place for you.

I'm sorry to hear that the last couple of months have been hard for you. But it is nice to hear that you are seeking support through therapy. I have been on my meds for quite awhile now too. It is always a fine balance with getting the meds we need, yet dealing with the side effects too.

Please feel free to jump in on any conversation. All are welcome here.

Take care Snowie xoxo

Just a not, if you would like to tag someone then just put a @ in front of their name.

Hey there @Arbie_wun and welcome to the SANE forums!

I just wanted to pop in here and introduce myself. I am amber22 and I am a Peer Support Worker here at SANE. Please reach out if you need anything at all.

Sitting with you and looking forward to chatting more,

amber22

Thank you for the welcome and I have in fact ceased that medication and things are improving as the medication was treating a symptom and not the cause. The cause has been fixed so now things are looking up!

@amber22 thank you for the support and I had a therapy session earlier today so feeling a little better and less troubled. Although there was a friend who I fear was negatively impacted by my recent troubles and she is no longer talking with me.

@amber22 ... I was looking for assistance in relation to Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder as I have previously been told by a mental health professional that this is one of my particular problems.

I also have PTSD as well as have had depression and anxiety related issues in the past as well.

Hey @Arbie_wun what kind of assistance are you looking for? Do you have mental health support at the moment for your OCD/PTSD?

@Jynx I do have support at the moment for many of my issues. I was hoping to find more so that if I have a problem whilst suffering a bit of insomnia during the night, I have the resources available to handle things when people are sleeping.

My OCPD was going great until recently when the same medication that caused my insomnia also caused issues with my OCPD and brought out some of my other mental health issues. Thankfully I had a friend assist me with advice about meditation and another suggested the old-fashioned warm milk to help with sleep.

But I would like something that I can reference when those things are not able to assist me during the dark hours of the night. For it seems that then, is when the darkness likes to sneak in the most!

@Arbie_wun Hmm good question.

Insomnia is rough, I've struggled with it too. Something that has helped me in that sense is learning that even just lying down with no external stimulation is more restful for our brains than doing stuff. I dunno if you can relate to this, but one of the things that makes it so hard to fall asleep is knowing how much sleep I am missing out on - the thought "I should really be sleeping" is what kept me awake! So now if I can't sleep, rather than stressing so much about not getting rest, I remind myself it's okay to just have a 'power down'. If after an hour I am still not drifting off, I'll do something light for a half hour or so - read a book, potter around the kitchen, watch an episode of something - then head back to bed. Frustration is activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, flooding my body with chemicals that increase alertness, so by reducing how frustrated I was getting with the lack of sleep, it made it much easier to eventually drift off.

If you're also sitting with intrusive thoughts in those wakeful hours in the middle of the night, you'd also be getting a lot of parasympathetic activation. The first idea that popped into my head was to maybe make yourself a list of affirmations to refer to - some reassurances to address intrusive thoughts, words of empathy and understanding, anything that you find it helpful to remind yourself that it's all gonna be okay. I went ahead and jumped on google, and found this list of positive affirmations for OCD, could be a good way to help you get started.

Practicing mindfulness & meditation would also be helpful. You can just do so whilst lying in bed, no need to get up - but also if it would help to go into a different room, sometimes even just moving into a different environment can move our brains into a different mental space. Another one to try that has a body focus would be Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR). Basically, since anxiety involves muscle tension, the idea is to try to release said tension. Research has found that by tensing and relaxing your muscles, it helps to actively release the tension that can build up when feeling anxiety. Our minds and bodies exist in a constant feedback loop - our mental processes affect our physical sensations, and our physical experiences influence our mental processes. So focusing on relaxing our bodies can also help soothe our minds. You can find a basic guide to PMR here. You could also find a guided PMR session on YouTube - maybe pick one that feels approachable, and has a pleasant voice over.

You can also always call any of the 24 hour crisis lines if things get really bad:

Lifeline: 13 11 14 or Crisis Chat

Suicide call back service: 1300 659 467 or online counselling

Samaritans: 135 247

Hope this helps 💜